The present invention relates to a cable support hook for supporting cable passing the hook.
Cable extends on a path along the outside of or inside a ceiling or wall in an enclosure, house or commercial or industrial building. The cable is typically used for supplying electrical energy, communication cables, data transmission cables, fiber optic cables, or the like. The cable is typically supported along its path.
In one cable support configuration, a series of spaced apart cable support hooks support and define a path for the cable. The cable hooks are apart and generally close enough together along the path so that the cable is adequately supported. Each hook may be of a generally “J” shape, including a rear leg by which the hook is attached to some support, a usually shorter height front leg and a web joining the front and rear legs. The cable is supported in the notch at the web between the front and rear legs.
Sometimes more than one type of cable is transmitted along the path, such as electric power cable, electric or electronic communications cable and data transmission cable. There might be electrical interference between cable transmissions, such as a field effect from one type of cable to the other. Therefore, it may be desirable to separate different types of cable running along the same path. Sometimes more cables extend along the same path than may be comfortably contained within the notch of one hook. Other situations may arise where the cables extending along one path should be separated.
Usually each hook is supported by its rear support leg on a support. Sometimes the support is the ceiling or wall along which hooks are arrayed. Sometimes the support is a separately provided support, like a post, for a set of the hooks positioned at a spaced apart location along the cable path. Sometimes two or more hooks are positioned at one location along the cable path.
The present invention particularly concerns an arrangement wherein a plurality of hooks at least one location along a path of the cables are ganged or supported to each other without need for an extra common support element to which each of the hooks is individually directly connected. In such an arrangement, only one of the hooks in the ganged array need be connected to a support and other hooks may be supported by connection to the supported hook, so that the hooks are supported in a series arrangement from the supported hook.
The prior art shows examples of ways to attach or gang cable support hooks.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,407,138 and 6,629,676 show a box or platform located at the top of a hook and an opening in the box or platform that enables suspended support of the hook. The lateral sides, front and rear of the box have openings. Beneath a web below a hook there are depending tabs with tab openings that can be aligned with the box openings at the top of a hook disposed next below. The aligned openings receive fasteners that hold the tabs below the web of the hook above to the sides of the box above the hook below and thereby attach one hook below to another hook above. Because of the orientation and features of the tabs and the box openings, connecting the stacked hooks to each other requires additional fasteners, and the entire support of one hook below another hook is provided by those fasteners.
Attaching a series of hooks to a common support, rather than attaching one hook to another hook for providing support, is shown Canadian Patent 2,315,025 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,520,476.
United States Published Application 2008/0093510 shows stacked hooks, with a plug projecting up from the hook below being installed vertically into a socket in the hook above. The orientation of the plug and socket prevents that connection alone from holding the hooks ganged, so that additional fastening is needed to secure one hook below another.